“She? There was a woman, I passed her on the stairs…late forties, dark hair in a bun—”
“My mother.”
Chapter 37
Mason
Her mother. Her fucking mother! I thought she seemed a little familiar when we crossed on the stairs, and now I know why. The pale skin, dark hair and some kind of common DNA or features. My poor girl is surrounded by people hurting her one way or another and enough is enough.
I take in her tearstained, sore, red face and dishevelled appearance. “Baby, come on, let me get you off the floor.”
She looks up with embarrassment and desperation in her eyes, but for what? She has done nothing wrong; I know that. She is yet again innocent of any wrongdoing and yet again she is the one hurt, physically and emotionally, bruised and battered, my poor girl.
“Baby,” I repeat with a wariness that’s unfamiliar.
“Mason?” A small, weak smile breaking the fear on her face for a split second. “Take me home.”
“Home?”
“Yes, home, with you, where I’m safe.”
Her eyes, freshly filled with unshed tears begin to blink quickly, but not quickly enough as the tears begin to fall.
“Hey, I’ve got you. Nobody’s going to get within a mile of you unless you want them to,” I say, almost promising her as I engulf her in my arms and kiss the top of her head, grateful that she realises her home and her place of sanctuary is with me, in our home together, but I’m sad that she has yet again endured pain and suffering at the hands of someone who should have been protecting her for her to come to that conclusion.
We forgo dinner out, picking up a takeaway on the way home, with more of Olivia’s belongings she’d already packed. The rest will be packed up and in my flat by the end of the week I decide with a mental note to sort the details out in the morning, first thing. We’re sitting on the sofa eating our food that Olivia insisted she didn’t want, and I insisted she did whilst watching a superhero movie I’ve seen countless times before when I broach the subject of her mother.
“What did she want?”
“What you’d expect. Lies, more of them, but mine this time, to defend them.”
“You have got to be joking. What a prize bitch. Surely she doesn’t believe him still?” I watch her face for any sign of emotion, but she remains impassive and her tone is flat.
“It would seem that she knows what went on, but reckons Scott is following suit and if I don’t play ball the whole house of cards will come tumbling down…”
“You don’t believe her though, about Scott?” I wonder how the hell my girl will ever get over this if it’s true. I know she will blame herself for his demise.
“I dunno, I really don’t. I don’t want to. He was so angry about things when I told him that I truly can’t imagine him being party to it, but seven years is a long time. What the fuck happened after I left, Mase? Maybe—”
“No! Don’t do this. Do not allow them to make this your fault. They, your mother, your stepfather and the doctor were the adults, and they are to blame, only them.”
She nods knowing what I am saying is true but there’s more I need to say.
“Olivia, if your brother is involved in this, if he is doing to someone else what was done to you…”
I leave the words hanging so she can absorb them because I absolutely mean them.
“I am sure he wouldn’t unless he was forced into it somehow.”
She looks ready to cry again and as much as I don’t want her to she really needs to accept that if her brother is involved in this then he is as bad as her stepfather meaning there will be no way back for her and him.
“That might be so, but he is not a child. He is a grown man and needs to accept the consequences to his actions because if you had the strength to leave at sixteen with nowhere to go then he sure as hell could have left in the last seven years.”
“But—”
I’ve had enough of this now. I understand her desire to protect Scott, but my need is to protect her and as such, if he poses a threat to her I will overrule her desire to save him as I have no such compulsion. “Olivia, I don’t want to upset you over this but if he is doing what your mother suggests it is as wrong as what was done to you and I hope they all rot. However, I promised you when you first told me about it that I would do whatever I could to keep you safe and your name out of things and I will, but I don’t know that you want these people letting off the hook.”
“You think I should have done something sooner? That what has happened since me is somehow my fault?” She completely misunderstands everything I’ve said.
